An educational charity called today for a cross-party commission to examine the reasons why Britain has one of the worst rates of social mobility in the world.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, said while social mobility in the UK has stabilised in recent years it is still at a very low level compared to other European countries and the US, and that the chance of a good education was key to the problem.

Children born in the UK in 1970 have less chance of escaping poverty than those born in 1958, according to the interim findings of research being carried out for the trust.

Sir Peter told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that educational opportunities are still more likely to go to well-off people, despite a decade of Labour government.

“We really have the worst of all worlds: we have got inequality of opportunity with inequality of outcome. I think we are in a really terrible position. This is too important for party politics and we need a cross-party commission to really look at this,” he said.

He also suggested a return to taxpayer-funded places for less well-off pupils at independent schools.

The Conservative leader, David Cameron, said the research was “staggering” and that real improvements would come from a generation of non-selective schools such as Labour’s city academies.

Mr Cameron said: “If people aren’t achieving according to their talents and according to their potential, then it’s a huge waste for them, a huge waste for society and it’s also deeply unfair.”

He said making it easier for people to open new schools was the key to improving standards for all, alongside fostering “strong and stable families” and early years provision.

“If we spend our time just working out how to divide up a fixed number of good school places, we will never get anywhere. What we’ve got to do is increase the number of good school places.”

But he did not specify grammar schools as the solution. “Making a fixed decision at 11 between one sort of school and another is not the right answer.”

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The growing influx of full-fee paying Indian students is reaping rich dividends for Australia. India is now the second largest source of overseas students and a significant contributor to Australia’s international education market, which is worth A $9.8 billion to the national economy.

In the last one year, as many as 40,010 Indian students have enrolled in Australian educational institutions - 55 per cent growth from the previous year, according to Australian Education International (AEI).

At a recent international forum on Australia-India relations held at Sydney University, Indian High Commissioner to Australia Prabhat Shukla said, “India has world class international institutions, but Indians will continue to look abroad for further studies because the demand outstrips supply.”

A strong case has been put forth to establish an Indian centre of learning at the university that would encompass Indian languages, art, culture and history.

“We need more two-way exchange of students, joint research collaborations and blended degrees,” noted Neville Roach, chairman of the Australia-India Business Council.

In March, Prime Minister John Howard announced a new $25 million bilateral research programme with India. Whether it is higher studies or tertiary education, Australia has drawn a large number of Indian students, looking away from the traditional educational destinations of the US and Britain.

Surprisingly, 54 per cent of students choose educational institutions in the Victoria State and its capital Melbourne. Approximately one in five of the international students studying in Melbourne and Victoria are from India.

In Victoria, 47 per cent of Indian students were enrolled in higher education programmes - over 100 students were pursuing a PhD and two-thirds were doing Masters programmes.

While Business Studies remained the most popular course for higher education, the number undertaking nursing has also expanded significantly. Hi-tech fields such as computing and engineering, however, are becoming less popular.

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The insurance industry, calling itself Consumers Against Higher Insurance Rates, has raised more than $650,000 to repeal a new state insurance law. A referendum to ask voters if they want to retain the law was filed last month with the Secretary of State’s office. The industry wants Ref. 67 on the ballot, then it will campaign against it. If the referendum is defeated, the law would be repealed.
According to the most recent reports at the Public Disclosure Commission, 13 insurance companies — most from outside the state — donated a total of $651,511 since mid May. The campaign has until July 21 to collect 112,4440 signatures to qualify the referendum for the ballot.
On the other side, the Washington Trial Lawyers donated $100,000 earlier this month.
I hadn’t realized the referendum was going ahead until I saw a press release today from Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma. Kirby is chairman of the House Insurance, Financial Services and Consumer Protection Committee and was a strong backer of the insurance bill, ESSB 5726.
The bill, among other things, allows a court to approve triple damages if an insurance company is found to have violated the so-called Insurance Fair Conduct Act and unreasonably denied coverage or payment. You can read a good explanation of the bill in the final bill report.
Kirby’s release says, “Citizens should beware that signature gatherers for a new referendum are working to overturn a new consumer protection law.”:
“The law we passed simply says the insurance industry must treat consumers fairly. If you paid your premium and file a legitimate claim, the insurance company must honor its commitment.”
The bill was a hot topic during the legislative session. It was a priority for Democrats and trial attorneys, but was at the top of the list Republicans and the insurance industry wanted to stop. In the House, the tension exploded when Rep. Dan Roach complained the bill was a favor to House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler’s husband. Her husband, Keith, is an attorney but had no involvement with the bill and Roach later apologized for his remarks.

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What ails the IPO market

What has always ailed the IPO market in India is the predominance of poor quality IPOs and their mixing up with the good ones. Hence, if the good quality issues can be segregated from the bad ones, it would be a real help to investors. The IPO grading system attempts to do just that.

The subscribers to IPOs have suffered huge losses in those cases where they unknowingly purchased poor quality, bogus or even fraudulent issues. There was no deterrent punishment to the fraudsters, given our weak legal system. The IPO grading system tackles this problem.

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) had first experimented some months back with grading of IPOs on optional basis. However, none of the promoters and lead managers voluntarily chose to be graded even at no cost to the companies concerned. This is what led SEBI to make grading of all IPOs compulsory.

The important features of SEBI’s decision on IPO grading are as follows:

The grading exercise will exclude the issue price from its scope;

It will be carried out by recognised credit rating agencies;

The grading will be on a 5-point scale, the lowest grade to be indicated by 1 and the highest by 5 and

The issuing company will be allowed to choose the rating agency for grading its IPO.

The main criticism voiced against SEBI’s decision has been that it excludes the issue price from the scope of grading. The critics have argued that the issue price is a crucial factor in determining the worthwhileness of an IPO from the investor’s viewpoint.

However, it can also be argued that the reasonableness of the price itself depends on the IPO’s fundamental quality. Determining the quality is a very complex job beyond the competence of most investors. That is why so many poor quality and even bogus IPOs get subscribed. Grading of IPOs in terms of their fundamental quality will enable investors steer clear of unsound and fraudulent IPOs. Such IPOs are likely to be restrained by the grading system as they will be in the bottom grades of 1 and 2.

The qualitative analysis of IPOs has to include factors such as business prospects of the company and the industry, company’s competitive strength, management’s competence and integrity, quality of corporate governance, reliability of the company’s accounting and audit system, etc.

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The Government may ask giant state owned corporations and banks to reconsider the dates of their IPO (initial public offering), for fear that the stock market may suffer from “indigestion” if all of them make IPO at the same time.

Tran Bac Ha, Director General of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), has asked the Government to re-arrange the dates for the IPOs of important state owned corporations and banks scheduled to take place in the second half of the year.

According to Mr Ha, an overly high supply of shares may lead to the decrease of share prices, while creating losses for the state.

Share ‘indigestion’
The IPOs of a series of big state owned corporations at the same time may make the market stumble. The big state owned corporations include BIDV, which will have the expected chartered capital of VND14tril ($0.875bil). Though proposing the time rearrangement, Mr Ha said that BIDV would still carry out its IPO as previously planned.

When asked if the IPO of Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (Incombank), also slated for the fourth quarter of the year, would have any bad impact on either big bank, Mr Ha said tersely: “The same quarter, but not the same month”.

With the tentative chartered capital of VND10tril, Vietcombank has submitted its equitisation plan to the Prime Minister. Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Director General of Vietcombank, said that with the current condition of the stock market, it would be difficult to sell shares at high prices, but added that the situation might be different in August.

Huynh Nam Dung, Chairman of the Mekong Housing Development Bank (MHB), said that he had not received any instruction from the Prime Minister relating to the IPO delays; therefore, the bank was now still moving ahead with its previously set plan. He said that MHB might perform IPO in October.

Meanwhile, investors have heard that other state owned giants in telecommunications and brewing are also planning to make IPO in the upcoming months.

Le Ngoc Minh, Director of MobiFone, said that the company had not received any instructions on an IPO roadmap rearrangement. MobiFone previously planned to auction its shares in December at the latest. Meanwhile, Sabeco, a brewery and drink company, is having its assets valued, and its IPO plan is expected to be drawn up to be submitted to the Ministry of Industry and the Government by early August.

After the plan is approved, Sabeco will auction shares equivalent to 20% of chartered capital in the first phase, and sell another 20% in 2008. Another brewery company, Habeco, is planning to make IPO at the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

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One of the advantages of the Internet is now you have the opportunity to buy and sell stocks online, using an online brokerage account.
Instructions

Steps:

1 Step One
Decide what your individual financial needs are: How much information about stocks do you need? Do you need to be able to reach a live person by phone? Are you more concerned with ease of use and speed?

2 Step Two
Decide which online broker is best for you based on your needs. Visit Gomez.com for an excellent, up-to-date comparison.

3 Step Three
Decide how much money you’d like to put into your new account. Some brokers have minimum requirements. Some people start with a few hundred dollars, others with $100,000 or more; the amount depends on your financial situation.

4 Step Four
Complete an account application for your selected broker. Most brokers have an online application, but you will probably have to send in some paperwork with your signature as well.

Tips & Warnings

* Peter Lynch, a successful money manager and author of several books about investing, recommends that you never put any money into a brokerage account if you are going to need the money in the next six months.

* If you’re new to investing, select a broker that provides telephone service as well as online service. A live person to speak with can be a real comfort when you’re just starting out.
* Focus on smart picks and good timing, not on commissions. Very few people lose their money because of paying high fees. They almost always lose money because of bad stocks or bad timing.

* Some online brokers allow you the option of wiring money instead of sending a check, which can allow you to open your account right away.

* Not all online brokers provide telephone service with online trading. Be sure your broker offers that option if you want it.

* Some online brokers that provide telephone service can have prohibitively long wait times to get through. Test by calling the 800 number and checking the wait time yourself. If it’s longer than 30 seconds or so, choose another broker.

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